Saturday, July 12, 2014

An Afternoon at the Arena

After seeing the Gladiators
I finished up yesterday the kids were pretty stoked to get their
mitts on them and play so I thought I’d set up a quick game with them this
afternoon. (We also finished reading a book about Gladiators yesterday – so
they were SUPER stoked to play with them!).

As Song
of Shadows and Dust has some stats for Gladiators I used that. I told
the kids to pick out 150 points of gladiators and we’ve have a go at it. The
Boy picked out three Burly Samnites. The Girl picked out a female Retiarius and
Dimachaerus.

Rome, 87AD

FORCES

The Boys

Nubius – Samnite

Q3+, C4, 46 points

Armed, Bludgeon, Slow

Baucelmyus – Samnite

Q3+, C4, 46 points

Armed, Bludgeon, Slow

Herkdotes – Samnite

Q3+, C4, 46 points

Armed, Bludgeon, Slow

The Girls

Assariya – Retiarius

Q3+, C3, 56 points

Armed, Disarm, Opportunistic

Minerva – Dimachaerius

Q3+, C3, 70 points

Armed, Street Fighter

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures
for a bigger version)

The kids setting up their
Gladiators

The Boy and his burly Samnites

The Girl (who fights dirty –
bless her socks!)

The Boys won initiative and
Nubius went charging out into the arena… Then Baucelmyus rolled a pair of ones
and that was the end of the turn!

The Girls weren’t quite able to
capitalize on this lone gladiator… but their moves were bold and decisive.

On the second turn Baucelmyus
and Herkdotes rushed up to support Nubius, but didn’t quite get there in time.
Nubius moved in against Assariya the Retiarius and was landed on his ass for
his troubles!

On the girls turn Assariya the
Retiarius finished off Nubius with a Power Blow and retired back to where
Minerva the Dimachaerius was.

Baucelmyus and Herkdotes rushed
forward again but were unable to make contact, the more nimble women circled
around and teamed up on Baucelmyus – he was able to hold his own until the boys
turn…

Herkdotes attacked Minerva but
was driven back by his furious blows. Baucelmyus and Assariya went at it hammer
and tongs neither able to land a telling blow and neither willing to give any
ground!

Minerva quickly stepped around
Assariya and stabbed Baucelmyus in the side ending his days.

And so it was that Herkdotes
found himself facing the two ferocious female gladiators on his own.

Not one to back down from a
challenge, Herkdotes charged Assariya.

And knocked her on her ass.

She was too quick, though –
before he could finish her she sprang up and back him back.

Minerva followed up with a
flurry of furious blows…

…driving Herkdotes further back.

When Herkdotes got his balance
back he charged in again…

…and was again driven back.

Minerva flashed in and, while
Herkdotes was off-balance, tripped him up and cast him to the ground.

Desperation and adrenalin sped
his reflexes and Herkdotes sprang up as quick as he fell.

Surprised by this sudden
movement, Minerva was also caught off balance and knocked to the ground.

Before Herkdotes could finish
her, Assariya sprang into action and cast her net at Herkdotes, but Herkdotes
used brute force to smash into her with all his weight behind his shield and
bowled her over!

With both his assailants knocked
down, for a fleeting moment Herkdotes thought he might get out of this alive.

Quick as a flash, Minerva was up
again…

…and blindsided Herkdotes with a
half-dozen quick stabs from her blades.

The initially out-numbered women
prevailed!

The vanquished Herkdotes, seriously wounded though he was, did not die outright and plead
for mercy. Having fought so well on his own against two attackers mercy was
granted and he was dragged off to the Medicus to see if he could be saved…

Fun times! This worked so much better that the Savage Worlds we used in our previous Gladiatorial Campaign. So much faster and much more dynamic!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

We may play another game this evening – or perhaps tomorrow
afternoon…? Either way, there will be more game reports in the near future!

6 comments:

*The crowd roars* Nice to see Herkododes being granted mercy after this tough fight. Well written report and cracking game! Btw - are there rules that determine if mercy is granted by the audience, or was it just players decision?

No there are no rules for mercy - the rules aren't really written specifically FOR gladiatorial combat - we just made it up.

There are rules for seeing if your guys that have been injured during the game actually survived and how injured they are - we could have used that and just assumed that if he lived it meant mercy had been granted and his wounds were not too grievous.

The funny thing is the Girl's strategy is usually "I like the look of these figures, I'll pick them... do I have any points left?". Whereas the Boy always tries to figure out which are the most bad-ass... which we will get the most out of.. etc... Sometimes it works for him... other times... not-so-much.